The mechanisms of NLRP3 inflammasome/pyroptosis activation and their role in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a typical neurodegenerative disease and the pathological feature of which is the death of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra region. At present, neuronal death caused by inflammatory cytokine-mediated neuroinflammation is being extensively studied. The nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-, leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is an inflammatory complex existing in microglia. Its activation promotes the secretion of the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β/18 (IL-1β/18) and induces pyroptosis, a type of cell death that possesses the potential for inflammation, to rupture microglia to further release IL-1β. In this review we focus on the mechanisms of activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and pyroptosis and their inflammatory effects on the development of PD. In addition, we focus on some inhibitors of NLRP3 inflammatory pathways to alleviate the progression of PD by inhibiting central inflammation and provide new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of PD.